First To Finish, Wins

Protecting Prison Staff by Way of Securus Technologies

The only part of my job as a prison corrections officer I do not like is the violence between inmates and officers. I try to befriend as many inmates as I can because I know we are all working and living in very close quarters, and professional courtesy can go a very long way. That being said, no matter how hard we try to maintain the peace, there are certain violent inmates who want to hold my team accountable for their being arrested, and they will attack when the chance arises.

To try and limit these incidents and injuries, we have to take certain precautions every day, never letting our guard down at any point in our busy day. The first order of business every day is doing cell inspections while inmates are eating at the mess hall. We bring in drug-sniffing canines if needed, and eliminate any drugs or weapons that we discover. The inmates do not appreciate the invasion, but in the end it is necessary for keeping peace.

We used to manually listen to inmate calls, but when Securus Technologies introduced their new call monitoring software, we took the chance to upgrade our system and start taking proactive measures to curb violence. Securus Technologies is currently based in Texas, and with 1,000 employees, the company says they intend to have 3,000 of these call monitoring systems in jails around the country in the near future.

The new monitoring system works while officers are spread out in the jail taking care of other issues, rather than sitting listening to calls. If the LBS software picks up chatter concerning drugs, violence, gangs, weapons, or anything related to contraband, we get an immediate notification and take action. In one month, we saw an incredible reduction in violent outbreaks in our prison.